Atlas
by Yhoretta
Summary: "Go on Tegan, I want to know what happens next." A dangerous and unstable ship hurtles towards Earth, but the TARDIS is out of action; prompting the Doctor to take desperate measures in order to stop the collision. Unfortunately, nothing is quite *that* simple with this trio, and the fate of the world quite literally rests on their shoulders.
1. The tea party

"_There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and the talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.' "_

Tegan looked up from her book to see that the Doctor was still hard at work under the TARDIS console.

"I still think this is rather silly Doctor. If you want to read the book, do your work on this old ship some other time," she said.

"Nonsense Tegan, I can listen to you read it _for_ me and focus on what needs to be done," came the Doctor's distracted reply.

"Oh sure," groaned Tegan sarcastically, dropping her eyes back to the pages nonetheless and reading aloud again.

"_The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: `No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. `There's PLENTY of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the ta-"_

Turlough burst into the console room with a classic case of bedhead and untidy clothes, as if he'd dressed in a hurry. His eyes scanned the place, first locking on to the Doctor's feet poking out from under the console- then to Tegan, smirking at him from behind her copy of _Alice's adventures in Wonderland. _Turlough rolled his eyes irritably and wagged an accusing finger at the Australian.

"I thought I heard your voice," he announced testily. "I was trying to take a nap when you woke me up with your reading! Honestly, if it's that difficult for you, I'd suggest-"

"You'll suggest nothing, thank you very much," harrumphed Tegan. "And for your information, I was reading to the Doctor; who seems to think that I've got nothing better to do than to help him multitask!" Turlough held his hands up in a mock-defensive gesture and turned away from the human, trying to sweep his ginger hair into a more respectable position. Banging came from under the console, as if the Doctor had taken to simply beating it with a hammer.

"Go on Tegan, I want to know what happens next," he suddenly exclaimed over the noise. Turlough swooped in and snatched up the book before Tegan could fire off a remark to the Time Lord. He held it upside down, sideways and diagonally; analysing every detail of the dogeared thing. Finally, Turlough stood beside Tegan and started to read.

" ' _Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone…"_

The scanner beeped wildly, calling someone-anyone-to attention. Tegan was the first up, her eyes widening at the sight.

"Doctor, something's coming straight at us!" she called. Turlough tossed away the book to peer at the scanner as the Doctor got to his feet. He winced as the first-edition copy skid across the floor and landed against the wall.

"Alright, initiate evasive action," ordered the Doctor to no one other than himself. He spun around the console, pressing levers and pulling buttons at an alarming speed; but it was too late. Something large and heavy hit the TARDIS, or rather: the TARDIS hit something large and heavy. It was an ebony ship that had bounced off the blue box. Both vessels hurtled towards the planet below, the smallest with a few seconds head-start.

"Turlough, what planet were we orbiting?" asked the Doctor, holding his hands over a yellow switch whilst pressing a red button with his foot.

"Uh...Earth," said Turlough.

"Of _course_ it is." The Doctor sighed and directed Tegan to hold the switch down for him while he got to work on another side of the hexagon.

"We've been hit badly, just as I was working on the shields, but I should be able to at least soften our landing. Hold on tight, in case I can't." It was with those reassuring words that Tegan, Turlough, and the Doctor crash landed on Earth. Luckily they all pulled out, relatively unharmed. Even the book made it out alive-ish. The Doctor slipped it into his jacket pocket and straightened his stick of celery. The lights flickered eerily and died as if someone had forgotten to pay the Gallifreyan electric bill.

"The TARDIS...she's gone dark," whispered Tegan.

"I'm not surprised," said Turlough. "She's losing power." The Doctor pulled the door-lever but nothing happened. Finally, the exit gave way with a wheezing noise and a burst of sparks.

"You two get out of here. I need to retrieve something important." He dashed out into the hallway, throwing the white door open like it was made of paper.

"Doctor, what is it?" shouted Tegan.

"I'll explain later!" came the Doctor's echoing reply. Tegan allowed Turlough to drag her out of the ship. A dark shape fell through the clouds, heading directly towards the grassy field that the travellers had landed on. There was no one around, no one trying to stop it.

The Doctor sped out of the TARDIS, holding two very robust machines over his shoulders by their handles. He stood directly under the advancing ship with his arms held high.

"No, don't! It'll kill you!" cried Tegan, but Turlough wrapped a comforting arm around her waist to stop her from running forward. The ship-or whatever it actually was-couldn't have been much bigger than a small house, but it was terribly futuristic and sinister as it hurtled towards the blonde alien.

"NO!" someone exclaimed in the haze of the crash. Dust cleared and a shadowy figure stood strong. Alive. The Doctor was holding his two machines, which were somehow keeping the black space ship suspended in the air, spinning slightly with coils of smoke dancing along its hull. He smiled cheekily at Tegan and Turlough. Suddenly his knees buckled and his legs bent, causing the ship to stagger slightly closer to the ground.

"Very heavy," he gasped. "Even with these reverse-gravity generators."

"Well, now that you've stopped it from crashing, can't you just let it down gently?" asked Turlough.

"Doesn't work like that," said the Doctor, his eyes closing with concentration. "These things take power from whoever holds them. If I were to suddenly let go, the ship would fall."

"And explode," added Turlough in a very _armageddon-is-nigh_ voice. "You can tell by the way it's buzzing like that." The Doctor nodded stiffly in agreement, barely opening his eyes to take in their horrified expressions. He sank lower under the weight, until his knees were on the grass.

"You two will have to try to get inside-" the Doctor nodded up to his burden, "- and see if you can send it back into space. Also, make sure there's no one inside while you're up there." Tegan opened her mouth to ask how exactly they were supposed to climb up to the ebony ship, but the Doctor looked in no mood to further explain things. She stood beside him and knit her hands together, glaring expectantly at Turlough.

"Come on then, you're the alien, you find the door." Grumbling, Turlough placed his foot on her makeshift step and hauled himself onto the smooth rim. He slid around on its surface, hands moving over every ridge and crevice that he could find. Tegan watched him, jerking cautiously each time he slipped towards the edge.

"Try pressing the symbol," said the Doctor, sweat glistening on his forehead.

"What symbol?" inquired Turlough.

"It's clearly a cargo-ship of some sort. There should be a symbol. It usually looks a bit like a Terran compass."

Turlough eventually found it and slammed his hand onto the indentation. A gaping hole faded into existence against the hull, providing the perfect door. Tegan held her breath as Turlough jumped in alone.

"He can't do it by himself. You need to help him," said the Doctor, his voice barely above a whisper.

"It's _you_ I need to help at the moment," replied Tegan. She shuffled up beside him and placed her hands over his on the _reverse-gravity generators_, allowing him to slip out from underneath. Immediately the machines started to drain away at her energy, at her very_ being_. The weight was nearly unbearable, yes...but the vampiric force was already making her head spin. She vaguely saw the Doctor retrieve a stool from the TARDIS and lift himself onto the ebony ship, but she honestly didn't know how long she could keep her friends-and the Earth, come to think of it-safe.

"Turlough!" called the Doctor. Turlough's ginger head poked out from behind one of the walls. "I can't be too long. Have you found any survivors?"

"I've run a scan. There were never any lifeforms aboard. It's fully automated, which means that there's no one to help us send it back into space. So it will either explode down here when someone eventually drops it, or up _there_,if we're lucky. " said Turlough. "But there's no way to save it in either scenario," he added bitterly.

"I'm going to get Tegan. Tell her what you told me and see if you can get those controls working." The Doctor jumped down onto the stool and onto the grass, practically sprinting over to Tegan. She looked up at him and shook her head in determination. He ignored the gesture and sat beside her, transferring the reverse-gravity generators to him. Tegan staggered out from under the pressure. The Doctor stood on his knees, the weight of the world on his shoulders, boring him closer and closer towards the ground.

"Turlough needs your help. Go!" he said. The Australian bit back whatever remark she'd thought of making and sighed.

"Brave heart Doctor," she said, climbing onto the stool. The ebony cargo ship was almost as dark inside as it was on the outside, with large cans of what looked like some sort of fuel stacked up along the walls. A few had been knocked over and reflective brown liquid had formed pools on the floor.

"I'm surprised no one's come to do anything about this piece of junk," observed Tegan. Turlough turned back to her with a paper list in his hands and a wire between his teeth.

"Ith a cargo sip," he said with great difficulty. Tegan took the wire out of his mouth. "Thank you. I was saying that this is a cargo ship. Specifically the kind that transports illegal fuel." He jerked his head to the cans. "It's made to be unseen, but it's also unstable. If we can't send it back into space, and we're forced to keep holding it up…"

"It'll explode anyway," gasped Tegan.

"Exactly, and we're running out of time."


	2. The King and Queen

Turlough fiddled furiously with the ship's computer. Every screen flared an angry red. Fuel dripped down into the workings of the craft in an unstoppable flow, bringing them all closer to danger.

"I'm obviously not going to be much help to you here," said Tegan, "So I'm gonna check on the Doctor." Turlough nodded vaguely, looking at her but not seeing her. She stuck her head out the opening...and the ship lurched down. It wasn't much, just a shudder and a slight drop, but it was enough to finally pull Turlough away from his workings.

"Something's wrong," he observed, hastily pushing past Tegan and sliding across the hull of the ship with the Australian in tow. The Doctor barely registered that they were looking at him in concern, that they were even there. His blonde hair hung limp against his face and his eyes were glazed over with the strain. He looked like a dead man crouching. Tegan's muscles still hurt from her own short time of holding up the ship, so she could hardly imagine what he must have felt.

"I'll take it, I'm the only one who hasn't had a go," declared Turlough.

"But we need you to send the ship back into space," argued Tegan. "I can't do it!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to, because I'm the only one with enough strength left to keep it up a little longer." Turlough shuffled over on his knees and pressed himself up against the Doctor, placing his hands on the reverse-gravity generators. He grimaced at the thought of having to take all of that weight. Before he'd met the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa; he'd been a coward, stuck having to kill the one man who was showing him mercy. Now a moment had come to prove himself, and he couldn't do it. Turlough started to pull away.

"What are you doing?" asked Tegan.

"You were right, I need to work on the ship," said Turlough desperately.

"Fine then. I'll take over, but I don't know if I can take much more." Each word was an intentional dagger at the ginger alien, who flinched from her. He almost turned away, but he saw something that made him dash back to the Doctor's side: The Time Lord's grip was slipping, he was starting to collapse. Turlough took up the position and for a brief second they were sharing the burden, then the Doctor crumpled. Tegan dragged him into the TARDIS while Turlough put all his strength into his arms.

"Doctor, can you hear me?" whispered Tegan, gently slapping the Doctor's cheeks. His head lolled but he was definitely unconscious. Tegan picked up his copy of _Alice's adventures in Wonderland _and took it with her back to the ship. She didn't really know why. It just made her feel a little better about the situation.

"_A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!' _" Tegan pressed a button at random and the blaring red screens seemed to go brighter. Hastily, she ran her fingers over the futuristic keyboard and pressed something that looked like a Greek number.

"_`I couldn't help it,' said Five, in a sulky tone; `Seven jogged my elbow.',_ " read Tegan aloud. She knew that her friends couldn't hear a thing. She didn't care. The shup hummed angrily. It would explode, taking the time travellers and everything else. Everyone that Tegan had ever cared about was going to die and it was all her stupid fault.

"Ten minutes until fuel detonation," said the calm voice of the computer. Tegan's body shook with frustration. She attacked the horrible machine with her bare fists, damaging the screens and half of the keyboard. The Australian felt better after letting out her anger, especially when the ship's voice came back:

"Ten minutes until fuel detonation. Ten seconds until lift off from planet Earth." Tegan clutched the Doctor's book in disbelief and jumped out of the ebony cargo ship, running to Turlough.

"Let go," she exclaimed. "This thing's 'bout to blast off!" The ginger alien uncertainly let his hands fall loose from the reverse-gravity generators. He rolled out of the way as the ship started to 'blast off' as Tegan had put it. Turlough took her hand and sprinted into the TARDIS. Tegan slammed the doors shut behind them and the unmistakable _boom_ of engines shook the room. Their burden was flying away, to explode in space where no one would be hurt.

The TARDIS looked a lot better than she had before and a sort of regenerating aura seemed to linger in the air. The Doctor lay happily on the floor, looking like a sleeping child. Tegan dropped down beside him and rested her head in one hand, laughing quietly.

"We actually made it out alive," she said. "Is it crazy that I find this hard to believe?"

Turlough sat on the floor and nudged her playfully with his elbow, "Not at all, Tegan." The Doctor opened his eyes and smiled at the two.

"I take it, everything's alright?" he asked.

"Yeah Doc, we're gonna be fine."

"Good," he closed his eyes again and tapped at Tegan's wrist. She realised that she was still holding his book. "You didn't finish. I want to know what happens next." He didn't bother to open his eyes.

"Honestly, you'd think that a centuries-old Time Lord could take the time to read a book himself!" snarked Tegan. The Doctor took the first-edition copy from her grip and scrolled through the pages, finding the perfect passage to read.

"You have to read to us now," teased Turlough. The Time Lord sighed dramatically and pulled a pair of half moon spectacles from his pocket, placing them on his nose. He took a deep breath, holding the book above his face.

"_The King and Queen of hearts were seated on their throne…_"

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_**A/N: Hello! Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. I know this chapter is shorter than the last one; but the story ends where it ends I suppose. Anywhale, thanks again for reading, you're amazing :D (Reviews help, a lot. Just saying.)**_


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